unfccc.int
HQ: Bonn, Germany
Focal Point: Dragoslav Jovanović
Email: [email protected]
Internal Sustainability Team: 3 part-time staff
Executive Secretary's Message
“Every country, business and organization needs to do their utmost to tackle the climate crisis. UN Climate Change has been on its own journey of sustainability since 2012 and I look forward to ensuring that our practices are aligned with global best practice and our stakeholder’s expectations”.
Mr. Simon Stiell, Executive Secretary, UNFCCC
Mission
“UN Climate Change, or UNFCCC, is the United Nations entity supporting the global response to climate change and is the parent treaty of the 2015 Paris Agreement. The main aim of the Paris Agreement is to keep a global average temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius and to drive efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius.”
ALIGNMENT WITH THE STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT IN THE UNITED NATIONS SYSTEM, 2020–2030
The UN Climate Change secretariat is in the process of finalizing its Environmental Management System following the ISO 14001 standard, and aspires for certification in the not too distant future. It has contributed to the development of the 2020-2030 UN Environmental Sustainability Management Strategy and aligns its policies and EMS, focusing on the areas of Events, facilities, ICT, Procurement, Travel, staff awareness and communications.
Emission Reduction
Since 2012, the UN Climate Change secretariat has been monitoring the greenhouse gas emissions from its headquarters and travel operations and taking measures to reduce them.
At its headquarters, the secretariat’s offices are powered by electricity solely from renewable sources – which is key to any effective emission reduction. Together with a number of energy and resource-saving measures, this has led to a sharp cut in emissions from office operations to less than 3% of the secretariat’s overall carbon footprint.
The remaining 97% of the footprint is generated by the travel of secretariat-funded participants coming to UN Climate Change meetings and of secretariat personnel. This is an inevitable challenge, given that support to the intergovernmental negotiations is at the core of the secretariat’s mandate. Measures taken to address this have traditionally included avoidance of travel especially by secretariat personnel, facilitated also by the UN Climate Change Parties’ decision to hold as many UN Climate Change meetings as possible at the seat of the secretariat. Where travel is unavoidable, preference is given to less carbon-intensive ways of travelling such as by train or in economy class.
Owing to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, virtual formats of UN Climate Change events replaced physical conferences and meetings, thus reducing secretariat funded travel activities to almost zero between March 2020 and October 2021. The secretariat has since then been further developing its virtual conferencing tools, with the aim of maintaining a lower travel volume.
As the final step towards climate neutrality, the UN Climate Change secretariat has offset, on an annual basis since 2012, the balance of emissions from its unavoidable activities by purchasing and cancelling Adaptation Fund Certified Emission Reductions. Instrumental in this has been the budgetary authorization from UN Climate Change Parties to fund reduction and offsetting efforts.
Beyond its own boundaries, the secretariat has been able to effectively advise and assist governments who host large UN Climate Change Conferences in measuring and reducing these events’ footprints. Also, since 2005, it has become standard practice for many host countries to offset the remaining balance of related emissions, including that of all participants’ travel to the venue.
The overall environmental performance of several COPs has been externally certified under ISO 20121 (COP 21,COP 22 and COP 25 and more recently COP 28 and COP 29) and EMAS, the European Union Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (COP 23, COP 25), covering aspects such as energy and resource efficiency, legal compliance and stakeholder engagement. The UNFCCC handbook How to COP is a useful tool providing guidance on the organization of a Climate Change conference including on sustainability efforts. In addition to the handbook, a video on the sustainable organization of UN Climate Change Conferences is available here.
Furthermore, the UN Climate Change secretariat has advocated emissions reduction and offsetting measures within the UN system, and helped many other UN agencies become climate-neutral, including the UN Secretariat HQ and Field Missions. Since 2015, the secretariat has offered a platform for every individual or organization around the world to become Climate Neutral Now! and through its engagement in the IAMLADP Task Force on Sustainable Meetings, it has spread the word and supported other UN bodies with the organization of sustainable meetings.
EMS and Reduction Efforts
In 2023, the Climate Change secretariat adopted an Environmental Sustainability Policy that provides for the establishment and implementation of an EMS aiming at achieving an internationally recognized standard.
Headquarters and operations:
- The newly completed headquarters building was awarded Gold Standard under the German Sustainable Building Rating System (BNB)
- The former headquarters building was built and operated to high environmental standards
- 100% electricity comes from renewable sources
- Reuse/ repair/ recycle:
- Written-off IT equipment is donated for reuse before recycling
- Life of office furniture is extended through repair
- Waste:
- Policy endorsed to reduce and where possible to stop the use of plastic on the premises
- Since 2019 following a staff initiative, separate waste bins located in central collection points have replaced individual office waste bins and improved waste sorting and recycling
- Copy paper used is 100% recycled or certified
- Replacement of hard copy with on-line publications and official document
Procurement activities:
- Focusing on procurement of goods and services that are sustainable across their entire life cycle
- Building supplier awareness of the importance of sustainable operations for UNFCCC
- Training and capacity building on sustainable procurement
- Monitoring and reporting on sustainable procurement
Travel activities:
- Avoidance of staff travel by organizing UN Climate Change meetings at the seat of the secretariat as a default
- Strict limit on number of staff representing the secretariat at external meetings
- Avoidance of travel through tele-, video- and on-line conferencing, e.g., for most job interviews, many training activities, some meetings of constituted bodies, etc.
- Travel policy conducive to emission reductions through most efficient mode of travel, most direct routing, incentives for voluntary downgrades
- Train travel compulsory for all trips of less than 6 hours’ duration (approx. 500 km)
- Economy class air travel compulsory for all trips of less than 11 hours’ duration
- Regardless of traveling time, flights between UN Climate Change HQ and 12 major destinations are in economy class only, including New York, Washington, New Delhi, Addis Ababa, Nairobi, Johannesburg, Beijing
- Maximum train and/or economy class travel of staff to conferences, training, etc., irrespective of duration of travel.
- Further development of virtual conferencing platform to reduce the need for staff and participants to travel
Conference and events activities:
- Standard provision on environmental sustainability in host country agreements for conferences
- Systematic support to host countries in measuring and reducing the carbon footprint of UN Climate Change Conferences
- Offsetting the remaining balance is standard practice for many host governments, including participants’ travel
General:
- Approval of use of budgetary resources for emission reduction investments and offsets
Each year, as part of the Greening the Blue Report on Environmental Governance, each participating UN entity’s progress on the development of an Environmental Management System (EMS) is evaluated according to the UN system’s EMS criteria (these criteria are available on the Methodology webpage). Upon this evaluation, the entity is then rated Exceeds, Meets, Approaches, or No response. For the 2024 reporting year, UNFCCC’s progress on the EMS is rated as: Does not meet.
Waste Management
The UN Climate Change secretariat follows the UN methodology for measuring and reporting on water consumption. Water saving systems are installed in bathrooms. Thanks to the geographical location of the headquarters, outdoor areas only exceptionally need watering.
Owing to increased remote working arrangements resulting from the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, less water has been consumed and wastewater generated at UN Climate Change office facilities.
Water and Wastewater Management
The UN Climate Change secretariat follows the UN methodology for measuring and reporting on water consumption. Water saving systems are installed in bathrooms. Thanks to the geographical location of the headquarters, outdoor areas only exceptionally need watering.
Owing to increased remote working arrangements resulting from the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, less water has been consumed and waste water generated at UN Climate Change office facilities.
Environmental Training for Personnel
Environmental training, including various courses produced throughout the UN system, is made available to all staff on the Climate Change secretariat’s learning platform.
Sustainability tips and practical guidance are shared biweekly with UNFCCC personnel through the intranet. Internal events, including reminders of our collective responsibility to reduce our environmental footprint, are also held regularly throughout the year.
For the 2024 reporting year, UNFCCC’s status on providing training on environmental sustainability is: Yes, but it is voluntary.
ENVIRONMENTAL INVENTORY APPROACH
The Climate Change secretariat’s inventory includes all categories foreseen by the common methodology and is based on measured data.
The Climate Change secretariat is also measuring all GHG emissions from travel to its annual COP, which are offset by the host government. It further plans to measure GHG emissions also from its other, smaller events using the UN Green Events Tool.
Offsetting
In 2012, the UN Climate Change secretariat launched its offsetting scheme and thereby became one of the first five UN agencies to achieve full carbon neutrality!
After avoiding carbon-intensive headquarters and travel activities and reducing the footprint of the remaining ones, the secretariat still generates between ca. 2,500 and 6,000 tons CO2eq per year. To offset this balance, it purchases and cancels Adaptation Fund CERs on an annual basis.
Adaptation Fund CERs were selected because they serve two important goals. First, they originate from the widest cross-section of all CDM projects, globally and indiscriminately. Second, the Adaptation Fund finances work in those countries that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.
In addition, host countries of UN Climate Change Conferences of Parties have established the practice of compensating for the carbon footprint of all COPs since 2005. The UN Climate Change secretariat also assists many UN agencies in offsetting their footprints and provides a convenient way to offset for everyone everywhere.
Waste management
The UN Climate Change secretariat follows the UN methodology for measuring and reporting on waste.
Since 2019, many staff have volunteered to take their waste to separate containers placed in central locations, so bins in their offices could be abolished and the use of plastic bin-liners reduced.
The separated materials are then processed in recycling plants, while a residual portion is incinerated for power generation. No waste goes into landfills. Hazardous and special waste (toner, batteries) is collected and handled separately. Written-off IT equipment is donated for reuse before recycling.
Owing to increased remote working arrangements resulting from the response to the Covid-19 pandemic, less waste has been generated at UN Climate Change office facilities.